Bitter Tears of Pain
by Midnyght Saber
Summary: Assigned the task of finding songs that describe them, Sam and Danny finally let out the truth about Danny Phantom. However, when Lancer discovers the truth hiding as fiction, he asks Danny to tell the town his secret. What will he do?
1. Teary Eyes

**Disclaimer:**_ Danny Phantom_ and all related characters and information are the property of Butch Hartman and Viacom International Inc. "One of Us" is the property of Walt Disney Records. "Lies" is the property of Evanescence and Bigwig Enterprises.

* * *

Danny sat at his desk, cloudy eyes scanning over the paper he'd just finished typing. For their weekend homework assignment, Lancer had told them to find a song that best described them and write a short paper about themselves in relation to the song. Once he'd gotten home, he spent nearly four hours going over his CD collection and downloading various songs, in the end choosing "One of Us" from the Lion King II soundtrack. An hour and a half after making that choice, here he was, sitting in front of his computer, fighting against the tears that threatened to spill from his eyes, the self-deprecation embedded into his paper like knives into his soul.

He turned in his chair at the sound of someone knocking on his bedroom door. "Yeah?" he called, trying to keep his voice from breaking.

"Danny, can I come in?"

It was Sam.

"Sure," he replied, turning back towards his computer as she opened the door.

Sam walked in, gently closing the door behind her. She'd sensed that there was something wrong with her friend and had come over as soon as she'd been able to get away from her grandmother. "Are you alright?"

Danny nodded, still refusing to look at her. "I'm fine. I just finished Lancer's assignment, and…" He stopped for a moment. "Excuse me." Without another word, Danny shot out of the room, slamming the bathroom door as he entered that room.

Sam had caught the barest hint of light reflecting from Danny's cheeks as he had left, and she looked towards the computer briefly. _I wonder why he's been crying. That's not like him._ Sitting down at his desk, Sam scrolled to the start of the document, reading over what Danny had written.

_Hello. My name is Daniel Fenton, but I prefer Danny. I was asked to find a song that describes me, and a few hours of song- and soul-searching later, here it is._

**Deception**

**Disgrace**

**Evil is plain as the scar on his face**

_The scar that I carry isn't visible, nor is it just somewhere on my head. The scar I bear is as big as my body and rooted as deep as my soul._

**Deception**

**An outrage**

**Disgrace**

**For shame**

**He asked for trouble the moment he came**

_All the good I do seems as if it's been for nothing, and no matter how hard I try to show the world that, even though I'm different, I'm not all that bad, they don't want to accept it. I don't mean any harm, but people don't give me a chance or the trust to be able to show them the truth._

**Deception**

**An outrage**

**Disgrace**

**For shame**

**You know these outsider types**

**Evil is plain as the scar on his face**

**See ya' later, agitator**

_My scar is my secret, my gift, my curse, my strength, my despair, and it is the lie that I live every day of my life. It is me hiding who I really am from the world._

**Deceive us**

**An outrage**

**Disgrace**

**For shame**

**He won't go back with you**

**He asked for trouble the moment he came**

**See ya' later, agitator**

_I haven't told my parents about this. I fear what they would say and I dread what they would do. You may not understand as the Fentons seem to be such sweet people despite their neuroticism._

_I realize now, as I'm struggling to put this to words, that I might be signing my own death certificate by writing this, but I no longer care. At least I would die with this lie finally off of my chest._

**Born in greed**

**Raised in hate**

**Helpless to**

**Deny his fate**

_Oh, how my life fits these lines. My parents' greed for knowledge about the paranormal led to construction of the invention that forever marked me._

_I've been raised to understand that ghosts are all evil and that they should be hated, regardless of their intent, or lack thereof, to wreck havoc on our plane of existence. Everyone in town feels the same way as my parents, and with what I have become for the rest of my life, I can no longer keep denying what I am._

**Let him run**

**Let him live**

**But do not forget**

**What we never forgive**

**That he is not one of us**

**He has never been part of us**

**He is not one of us**

**Not our kind**

_Once word gets out about what I've written here, I know that I'll be gone – run out of town, hunted like an animal – and all because I will not give up what I have. I know now that I can never be forgiven for what I am, but I no longer search for your forgiveness. I cannot care that I'll be hated, and I cannot keep letting myself care about what you think of me._

_I know what I fight for. I know what I stand for and what I fight against. I know what this means for me and the life I once wanted to lead, my dreams shattered like crystal glass because of what I have been changed into._

_By now, I would be right in guessing that you are completely lost, unable to decipher what I'm going on about. It's all a code to you, something for which you don't have the means of translating. Well, here, let me set it out in front of you, plain and simple._

_I'm not human anymore._

_Well, half of me is no longer human._

**Someone once**

**Lied to us**

**Now we're not so blind**

**For we knew he would do**

**What he's done**

**And we know that he'll never be**

**One of us**

**He is not one of us**

_Yeah, I've lied. I had no other choice if I intended on keeping the human half of me alive._

_Now, I just want to let everyone know that Inviso-Bill never actually meant anyone harm. Which, by the way, his name isn't Inviso-Bill, like the media dubbed him. It's Danny Phantom._

_You probably want to know how I know this, and you may even be thinking that I'm the one responsible for letting him out of the Ghost Zone and into our world, the scar I've referred to being my guilt for that transgression against the world. In a way, you're right, but you're still a little off. I didn't let him in. I didn't mean to open the gateway between our worlds in the first place. It was all an accident, one that now has me suffering every day of my life._

_You want to know why?_

_I_ am_ Danny Phantom. I'm the half-human, half-ghost child that, according to my parents and the rest of the town, is nothing but a problem and a threat._

_Fine, feel that way if you must. I know the truth, and that's what's important to me now. Not your acceptance, your hate, your forgiveness, your cries for revenge – all I care about is what I think of myself. If you cannot accept this, cannot accept _me_, then so be it. Just know this – every day of my life since the accident that transformed me into this, I have fought. I have put my life on the line so many times I have lost count, all in an effort to restrain the ghosts that truly mean harm. I seek only to keep you safe._

_I fight for the safety of everyone in my world and my town. Yes, I am half-ghost, but I am human above all else. I was born human, and my honor still remains with that half of who I am. I fight the ghosts to whom I have been made kin for the sake of those I care about, and that includes each and every one of you, whether you've taken the time out to get to know me or not, befriended me or abused me, talked with me or about me. I will not pass judgment on you, and I will not let the hurt you caused me get in the way of making sure that you don't lose out on your future like I did._

_As I said before, my dreams were destroyed with this hybrid existence. No longer able to follow my dreams of becoming an astronaut thanks to ghost hunting replacing study time and my grades suffering because of the scheduling issues. I will not allow you to lose your hope as I suffered mine being taken from me._

_The real part of this problem came not from the initial accident but the invasion of the town. A plot set into motion by a ghost warden who seeks to have me imprisoned for eternity, he turned you against me as a way of imprisoning me in this world. Locked in the scopes of nearly every ghost hunter on the planet, my parents included, my prison is your seething animosity, and none want to look beyond the façade that was put up, see past the label of 'evil ghost' that I seem to bear ever since that fateful day._

**Deception**

**Disgrace**

**Deception**

**Disgrace**

**Deception**

_Well, I think that's all that I can say. Why should I even waste more of my time trying to explain this to you? You'll never understand. You'll never see this world through my eyes, no matter how hard you try._

Sam pushed herself away from the computer, running her fingers through her hair, trying to get herself to calm down and keep from yelling at Danny for finally caving in under the pressure and blurting out his secret. Blinking, she inhaled sharply, biting her lip to keep from screaming in frustration, and she looked up as Danny walked back into the room, his eyes noticeably red.

"You read my paper?"

"You knew I would have, Danny…but I don't understand."

"What are you talking about?"

"Why are you giving up like this?" she asked, waving towards the computer screen. "There are people out there that care about you regardless of whether you're half-ghost or half-Martian."

Danny hung his hand, his hands balling up around the wad of tissue he'd brought with him. "You and Tucker are all the security I have against this, but it doesn't seem like that will be enough anymore. Tucker's grown more and more distant lately, and one person won't be enough to keep me from drowning under the tides of insanity in this futile attempt to shuffle two lives _and_ keep hiding the second. Even if you could, what can you do when my mother finally pulls the trigger – jump in front of the blast?"

"Would you still feel that way about me if I told you that I cared about you more than anything else in the world?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Danny, if it meant saving your life, I would go so far as to actually eat a _hamburger_," Sam answered. "I care about you more than I can even admit to myself, and I can't just sit by and watch you become a martyr to your own cause. I've had to sit on the sidelines since you got your powers, patching you back together after your fights, and though I can be proud of the self-sacrificing hero you've become, I'm afraid of losing you."

Danny walked to her, hesitating slightly as he pulled her into his arms, holding her close. "Sam, not to come off as mean, but how can you love me? I'm not human anymore."

"Do you think that matters to me?" she asked. "I knew you before the accident, and I know you now, after all this has just fallen into your lap. Being what you've become and handling it how you have has made you a superhero for the real world, someone rare and special, someone willing to stand up for what they believe in, and I respect you for that courage, Danny, and it wouldn't matter to me if you were half-ghost or full ghost. I love you for what you've become with the hand you've been dealt, and for what you are that I could never even hope to be."

"And what would that be?"

"Brave, fearless, dedicated, if a little devil-may-care at times…"

"But you _are_ that."

"Not like you. My strength, as the world sees it, is a cover, Danny. It's a social mask I wear to keep people from getting close to me. Letting people into your life only leaves them with ways to tear you down once you're not of use to them anymore."

"Then why did you let me get so close, Sam? Why did I get to see you as you really are?"

"Because you're different, and not just because of the ghost thing. I knew that you wouldn't hurt me."

Clutching his friend close to him, he nestled his head against her shoulder, her words wrapping around his heart, salving the wounds that society had dealt to him. "So," he whispered, "does this mean that you're going to try and convince me not to hand in that paper?"

"No," she answered softly, hands running smoothly over his back. "Whatever you do, and whatever happens, I want you to know that I'll be there for you."

Turning his head slightly upwards, he caught Sam's lips with his own in a fleeting kiss, pulling away, his indigo eyes still ringed in red. "Thank you, Sam."

- - - - -

Danny felt a pair of arms on his shoulder, shaking him awake, and he opened his eyes slowly, finding a pair of familiar amethyst orbs gazing at him. "Sam," he muttered, still rising out of unconsciousness, "what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to show you something. I finished my paper a little while ago and thought that you might want to read it."

Danny groaned as he sat up. "Please tell me that I managed to sleep straight through Saturday."

"Almost. It's a little before three."

"At least there weren't any ghost attacks," Danny murmured. "There's no way I would have managed to stay awake long enough to be up to snuff out there."

Sam handed her paper to Danny, but he softly batted her hand away. "I don't mean to offend, but I need a minute to get together. Could I have a moment?"

She nodded, stepping out of the room and gently closing the door behind her. A few minutes later, Danny walked out, fully dressed, and headed to the bathroom, and she walked into his room, lying down on the bed.

She'd been up until nearly one in the morning working on her assignment, finally managing to complete it and lock the file under password protection on her computer. The last thing she needed was anyone else finding what she'd written…and her grandmother was fond of snooping around on occasion.

Hearing footsteps in the hallway, Sam smiled as Danny walked into the room, her smile growing wider as he leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on her lips.

"Okay, now that I'm awake, can I see what my girlfriend wrote?" he asked, sitting backwards in his desk chair.

"Danny, I'm not…fine, so I am," she replied, noticing the puppy dog eyes he was giving her as she started to deny it. Leaning over, she handed him the paper. "Here, you big sap."

_I don't care what people think I am, or that they judge me under false pretenses. I can't afford to care about that because I don't let them see who I really am. Sure, there are a few people who understand why I am how I am, but they know better than to tell anyone else. I absolutely hate letting people know how I feel, and as I have my reasons for such, I hope this paper stays private. There are things I'm about to write that I've never been able to tell anyone before, and I guess that having one really close friend to help me through all of this has finally given me the strength to let out what's been haunting me for a majority of my life._

**Bound at every limb by my shackles of fear**

**Sealed with lies through so many tears**

**Lost from within and pursuing the end**

**I fight for the chance to be lied to again**

_I've spent so much of my life locked away in my room, crying my heart out because I know that I don't belong where I'm at. I've spent a lot of my life with people lying to me, trying desperately to make me believe that what they say is the truth. The only problem with that theory is that if twenty people tell one story twenty different ways, I'm not going to believe a single one of them._

**You will never be strong enough**

**You will never be good enough**

**You were never conceived in love**

**You will not rise above**

**They'll never see**

**I'll never be**

**I've struggled on and on to feed this hunger**

**Burning deep inside of me**

_I don't think that my parents will ever accept me, no matter how hard I try. You see, I wasn't born at what could be considered a good time for my mother. Her life was the stage, whether it was a play, a musical, or a movie, and she was about to get her first part in a really major production. She'd been discovered by some really big talent scout, and a week before she was to fly to California to start filming, she started getting really sick. My grandmother is the only one who's ever confided in me when it came to this story, so I can trust that this is the truth. As it was, my mother was suffering from morning sickness, and when she went to the doctor later that month, she found out about me._

_From there on out, the details get a little sketchy, but my mother never managed to get out to California, and she was forced, more so by my father's side of the family, into getting married to him. Now, isn't that a joke? Prim and proper Jeremy and Pamela Manson were only _dating_ when she got pregnant with me, and the wedding was only to ensure that neither of my parents would try to skip out on the other._

**But through my tears breaks a blinding light**

**Birthing a dawn to this endless night**

**Arms outstretched, awaiting me**

**An open embrace on a bleeding tree**

_Things didn't really get any easier for me at home until I started going to school, and even then, no one ever really paid attention to me other than the teachers. I was always ahead of everyone in the class and most of the other kids didn't like me because of that fact. Kindergarten wasn't the best of years, but once I got into first grade, I got into as many clubs and after-school groups as I could just so that I could stay away from home without getting into trouble. It took some pouting and good old-fashioned tantrums to get my mother to sign the permission slips for me to stay, but sign them she did._

_It was about this time in my life that I met the one person who has been with me every time that I needed him, even to this day. From the first day that we met at school, we were inseparable, and I actually managed to talk him into joining a few of the groups I was in._

**Rest in me and I'll comfort you**

**I have lived and I died for you**

**Abide in me and I vow to you**

**I will never forsake you**

**They'll never see**

**I'll never be**

**I've struggled on and on to feed this hunger**

**Burning deep inside of me**

_The person that I'm talking about is Danny Fenton. He's my best friend, and he's always been the one there to hold me when I'm down and tell me that everything is going to be alright. Now, since I've already seen his paper, I guess that I could explain in further detail the parts of this song that some would find confusing as to how it pertains to me. Hopefully, you've read his first; otherwise, this might be a little confusing._

_You see, a month after his fourteenth birthday, his parents finished another one of their many ghostly inventions, this one designed as a portal into the ghost dimension. It was another one of their ideas that failed to work, as so many had in the past, but this particular one had upset the Fentons a lot more than the others. Later that day, Danny showed me and Tucker the latest piece of 'junk' his parents had come up with and explained what it was for. Between seeing how down his parents had been and my goading him on about how interesting a 'Ghost Zone' sounded, he decided that he'd take a look inside and see if he couldn't fix it. He's not even that sure what happened, but something inside of the Portal was triggered when he touched a far wall, and with him inside when it geared up, half of Danny literally died that night. Now, he's got to go through life living with half a live identity and half a dead one – Danny Fenton as a human and Danny Phantom as a ghost._

_One thing that I have learned since that accident, though, is this – as long as we believe in each other, there will never be anything that can come between us. As long as he's alive, in his own unique way, he'll be looking out for me, my personal guardian phantom angel._

**They'll never see**

**I'll never be**

**I've struggled on and on to feed this hunger**

**Burning deep inside of me**

**Rest in me and I'll comfort you**

**I have lived and I died for you**

**Abide in me and I vow to you**

**I will never forsake you**

**They'll never see**

**I'll never be**

**I've struggled on an on to feed this hunger**

**Burning deep inside of me**

_I guess it wouldn't be far from the truth to say that we're more than friends now, but that doesn't change a single thing about what we have. And I warn you now – if the town refuses to accept him, wants nothing more than him to leave, there are going to be not one, but two people missing from Amity Park. I've trusted him with my life all these years, and that's not about to change, so if he goes, I go. I'm not going to give up on him, no matter what everyone else might think. If the people of Amity Park cannot see what there really is in him, then yes, I do believe that they will never see it._

_And the hunger that I've been trying to feed? It's me wanting to find a place where I truly belong. And the truth is, I've finally found it, and it's with him._

"I thought goths weren't supposed to be all love and happiness," Danny quipped, looking up from the paper.

Sam sat up, glaring daggers at the hybrid. "Some way for my _boyfriend_ to treat me," she snapped back, her voice heavy with sarcasm.

Danny laughed. "You know I didn't mean it that way."

Sam nodded, laughing lightly. "I know. So, what do you think?"

"I'm actually a little surprised. I didn't think I was being that obvious when it came to trying to keep you safe. Not that I think you're dense or anything like that. It's just…I thought that you never noticed it."

"I've trusted you as a friend for so long, and with your ghost powers, I knew that I could put my best foot forward, even if it was the same foot that put me in danger. I wasn't about to spend my life on the sidelines, watching you defend us all. I don't do the damsel in distress thing well at all." She sat up on the edge of the bed, crossing her legs under her. "So, anything you'd like to do today?"

"Um…" Danny mumbled, resting his head on the back of his chair. "Kiss you?" he suggested.

Sam laughed, only to have that soft sound muffled as Danny's lips claimed hers, his hands resting on her lower back as they shared a lingering, innocent kiss. As he pulled away, she wrapped her arms around his neck, keeping him close.

"Not that I mind being like this, and though I'd really love to stay here with you all day, how about a trip to the park?"

As they stood, Sam took Danny's hand in hers, their fingers intertwining as they headed downstairs.


	2. Tears Now Shed

**Disclaimer:**_ Danny Phantom_ and all related characters and information are the property of Butch Hartman and Viacom International, Inc. "One of Us" is the property of Walt Disney Records.

* * *

Danny and Sam walked into school, Tucker a few steps behind them. Stopping momentarily at their lockers, they tossed in the books not needed for their first few classes, making sure that they had their assignments ready to be turned in. Noting that Tucker hadn't grabbed any papers from his own locker, Sam asked him what had happened.

"Totally forgot about the assignment," he answered. "With you off-line, I had time to do some major damage on Doomed."

Sam shook her head as the trio walked to class. Stepping into the room, they placed their papers on the stack sitting on the corner of Lancer's desk, walking silently to their seats, ready for class to begin, both feeling as if a great burden had been lifted from their shoulders.

- - - - -

Danny was headed towards the lunchroom as his class let out, knowing full well that Sam would beat him there as her class was closer to the cafeteria. Amidst the din of the students swarming through the hallways, he heard the intercom click on.

"Daniel Fenton and Samantha Manson, please report to the vice principal's office. I repeat, Daniel Fenton and Samantha Manson please report to the vice principal's office immediately."

Danny spun on his heels, headed for Lancer's officer, the light feeling of relief that he'd had when he had turned in his paper was now a sinking lead weight in his chest.

Sam nearly bumped into Danny as he turned the corner, letting out a soft yelp of surprise.

"You okay?" Danny asked.

"Sort of. I think Lancer's miffed about our papers, so I'm a little…"

"I know what you mean. And it's either the papers or the fact that both of us were a little spacey in class today. I'm leaning towards it being the papers, though."

Stepping past the door to Lancer's office, the two swallowed nervously, noting that their papers were, indeed, currently sitting in front of their teacher.

"I believe we have something to talk about. Please take a seat."

The tension in the room was thick, the pair obviously on edge about the pending discussion.

"I explained to you at the end of class Friday that this assignment was to be a non-fiction piece geared towards helping you better understand yourselves, not some childhood fantasy concocted for the sheer enjoyment of annoying me. Therefore, I will make this short: either explain to me why you two failed to take this assignment seriously, an assignment designed to help you see just how you view yourselves, or I will fail you both right here and now."

Danny stood slowly. "Mr. Lancer…"

"Daniel, sit back down right now. I haven't dismissed you."

"I will _not_ sit down. You want an explanation for those papers, then here it is." Without another word nor his famous battle-cry, a pair of glowing rings suddenly snapped into place around his waist, moving slowly across his body, his trademark T-shirt and jeans replaced with a skin-tight black jumpsuit, his sky blue eyes altering to a preternatural glowing green, his raven black hair now stark white.

"I meant what I said, Mr. Lancer. I _am_ Danny Phantom. What you saw as a lie and a joke aimed at you is the truth, and it is the greatest secret I have ever had to keep."

Lancer's eyes had gone wide at the transformation, his mind barely able to process exactly what had just happened to one of his students. Part of him wanted to believe the paper when he'd first read it, but common sense had taken over, chided him for believing something so inconceivable. Now, however, it was a totally different story – he had seen the truth with his own eyes. Danny Fenton was Inviso-Bill…correction, Danny Phantom.

"Daniel, I…I…have to apologize."

Danny shook his head softly. "Don't. I can appreciate why it is you didn't want to believe my paper, and I just want you to know that there is nothing in there but the purest truth. I'm no danger to this town, and to be blatantly forward, I hate what the media has made of the work I do to keep this town safe. It's hard to keep doing the right thing when everyone keeps damnifying your efforts, but I deal with it as best I can."

Lancer looked down at the papers for a moment, a thought suddenly coming to mind. "You mentioned in the paper about getting this off of your chest. Would you be willing to talk to the entire school body about this?"

Danny paled considerably, which was a great feat considering just how naturally pallid he normally was in ghost form. Gulping slightly, he returned to his human form, dropping into the seat behind him. "I…I guess so."

"Would you be ready to give the speech by assembly on Wednesday?"

Danny nodded mutely.

"Very well, then. I'd like to see a rough draft of your speech by tomorrow. And Daniel?"

The half-ghost looked up.

"Don't worry yourself to death over this. You'd be surprised how well people can take news like this, especially those that know you." With that, Lancer dismissed the pair.

- - - - -

Wednesday rolled around slowly, the morning seeming to take forever to get going. By the time that Danny had actually made it to school, every part of his body was on fire, his nerves in complete overload at the monumental action he was going to take. Being the middle of the week, there was a school-wide meeting in the auditorium after second hour, usually spent with the adults boring the students to death with some lecture on this, that, and possibly even the other thing. However, when the rumor had started making the rounds that Inviso-Bill was supposed to be showing up, the school had been eagerly awaiting to see if this was actually true. Paulina was extremely excited once the story had reached her, and she desperately tried to hide her joy in case the rumors turned out to be false.

Danny was ducked behind the podium, the index cards carrying his speech in his hands, his head spinning with the reality of what he'd be doing today. He stood after a moment, taking a seat in one of the chairs to the left of the podium, waiting for Lancer to let the students start filing in.

The doors opened a few minutes later, and as the school body began to fill in, Danny started drumming his fingers against his legs, tension mounting at the sight of the crowd before him. As a part of that crowd in days past, he never noticed how many people attended the school. Now, however, it began to get to him, and he stood and headed behind the stage curtains, unexpectedly running into Mr. Lancer.

"Daniel, you are ready for this, correct? I don't want anything to happen to you out there."

"I should be fine. I just never noticed that there were so many students, and it has me a little nervous."

Lancer rested a hand on his pupil's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Just go out there and ignore the number of people. All you need to think about is the power and the importance of the message you are about to deliver to them."

Danny nodded, returning to his seat as Lancer stepped up to the podium, trying to get the collective mass of teenagers settled down. As soon as they had quieted, he began.

"Students of Casper High, some news has come to my attention in recent days that I believe is of the utmost importance, especially considering the number of ghost attacks that have taken place in our town in recent weeks. One of our own has come forward with information concerning one of the most renowned ghosts – Inviso-Bill." A hush ran over the crowd before the static of many voices speaking over each other filled the room. Lancer got them to settle down again after a few moments. "I will now hand the mike over to Daniel Fenton." Turning to Danny, he motioned for the youth to step forward.

Danny placed his cards on the podium and looked up at the crowd, taking a moment to steady himself before he began.

"Fellow classmates, I understand that this news comes to you as a bit of a shock. You must understand that, as the son of two of the world's most renowned and respected parapsychologists, there is quite a bit of activity within my family surrounding the recent attacks. Between the inventions made to counter the ghost threat and the actual fighting on the part of my parents, there is a lot that I hear and see regarding these ghosts.

"What I am about to tell you is not a story one would expect. Many of you may not believe it, but I swear to you on my life and honor that it is nothing but the purest truth. I know the true identity of Inviso-Bill and what he really is. I just hope that you are all open-minded enough to hear me out until the very end."

A murmur ran through the crowd as Danny spoke. He looked out at the assembled students for a moment, noticing that, alongside all the teachers gathered in back, the mayor was standing, his gaze intense. Danny flinched internally, hoping that the situation wouldn't get all blown out of proportion before he was finished.

"The media had fed you a series of lies and fallacies about Inviso-Bill since his appearance. The first fallacy I need to clear up is that, although he is a ghost, he is actually fighting on our side, protecting us." Many cries of "Liar!" and "Who made you Mr. Know-It-All?" rang through the crowd. Danny, despite this, kept going. "I will continue to break down the ignorance that the media has bred in you, but first, I want you to hear the opinions of others I know to have come in contact with this ghost. Would Valerie Grey, Tucker Foley, Sam Manson, and Paulina Sanchez please come up to the stage?"

Without speaking, the four named youths got to their feet, heading towards the stage as they received glares that bored into their souls. Danny handed the mike to Valerie as she was the first to reach the stage.

"This getting called up here is a surprise for me, so I really don't have anything prepared to say. About all that I can tell you is that Inviso-Bill was tailing the ghost dog that wrecked the lab my father worked at, which is why he had lost his job in the first place. I later found out that the dog, although a ghost that responded, in my opinion, a little too well to the ghost kid, was the wandering spirit of one of the guard dogs from the labs that was put down when the new security measures were implemented."

A boo was heard from Sam at this last comment. Danny looked over at her, and she quieted down, realizing that Valerie had more to say.

"From around that time, I have been supplied with numerous ghost-fighting weapons to try and hunt down Inviso-Bill." A new boo, this time from Paulina. "During the project with the flour sacks a while back, Inviso-Bill and I were captured by another ghost and used as hunting targets. Through our teamwork, we were able to escape the ghost, and since then, I have come to believe that there is a little more to the ghost kid than the news lets on, though I still have my doubts."

The mike was then passed on to Paulina. She twiddled her thumbs for a moment, unsure of what to say and exactly what of her feelings she was willing to publicly reveal.

"I don't really have too much to say about Inviso-Bill, but I do think that he's actually a good ghost. During the invasion of the town, I had been under attack by a ghost in the basement of City Hall, but before it could attack, Inviso-Bill captured it in what looked like a silver soup thermos. He ordered me out of the building while he fought the other ghosts that had been attacking other people in the basement."

Paulina handed the mike back to Danny, who promptly flipped it towards Tucker. "There was a time that I can distinctly remember that Inviso-Bill did help me as well." Danny caught the hesitation in Tucker's voice from him using the media's name for his ghost half, hoping that no one else had been able to hear it.

"Earlier this year, the school had been possessed by a ghost with the ability to grant wishes. This had been prior to the city-wide attack, but Inviso-Bill had been present then as well. I, seeing how much fun he had being able to do the things he could, wished for ghost powers without realizing my mistake. However, the powers I was given were not natural, and so began taking over my body. Thanks to a very timely intervention by Inviso-Bill, the ghost form that possessed me was removed."

Sam took the mike as Tucker handed it over to her. She and Danny had gone over this single part of the speech time and time again last night, but nothing could have prepared her for the crowd she now faced.

"Another major thing that has been fed to you by the media is the name Inviso-Bill. It isn't. His name is Danny Phantom."

Danny stepped up to the edge of the stage, his fear now melted under the determination that was flooding his system. "You ask how we know of all of this – the lies of the public and the truth of the ghost. It's really quite simple. Danny Phantom…is me."

A collective gasp filled the room as two vibrant lights snapped around Danny's waist, his human form soon replaced by that of Amity Park's Public Ghost Enemy Number One. Floating above the stage, Danny looked out over the crowd. "I fight for you. I have since the day I got my powers. I promised myself that, no matter who you were or how you treated me, I would protect the people of my town.

"I'm not afraid to show you what I am anymore. I can't be. The more I hide it, the worse my reputation becomes. I will not let the good work I do be poisoned by the lies of those who don't understand me." He hovered above those gathered in the auditorium. "None of you would like for your good work to be trodden down by lies, deceit, and the desire for a catching news story, would you?"

Conversation sprang up within the collected mass, and Danny could catch faint hints of what was being said. Some of the people gathered still didn't believe that he was good, even with the fact that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom were one in the same being. Others were debating the facts, hints and mentions of things that didn't seem on-key with Danny Phantom being a bad guy. There was even one small glimmering hope in the voice that he heard saying they trusted him completely.

What crushed his hopes were the glares coming from the back of the room. Beside the mayor were two forms Danny had somehow failed to notice all of this time – his parents. The looks that he found in their eyes were a collage of hatred, question, fear, and disappointment. Danny couldn't, at first, make out why the last emotion was present, and when he figured it out, the realization hit him like a brick wall. They were hurt by the fact that their own son couldn't reveal the truth about his actions and whereabouts, let alone the powers that he now contained within.

The voices around him faded into a blur as he fell into himself, the voices still confused as to what to believe. Raising himself above them once more, a question was roared to the audience. "Are you all that blind to the truth as it is laid before you? If I were evil, wouldn't I have attacked you all by now?!

"I stand here before all of you, pour my heart and soul into what I am saying, lay bare the reality of what I've become in the transformation from human to ghost, and all that you can do in response is wonder how evil I am just because I'm half-ghost?! Don't you see that I fight for all of you because each of you is a part of why I am Danny Phantom?! I will not let the innocent fall because of the hatred of the ghosts to whom I am now kin! I am human first, not ghost!" Rage in his eyes at their utter lack of comprehension, he flung a hand behind him, his finger pointing to the four he'd called onto the stage. "They see me for what I really am! They see that I fight for the greater good! They see me for who I am! Why can't any of you?!"

A deafening silence filled the auditorium, and Danny stayed in the air, unmoving, his eyes dancing over the crowd, although they were now filled with a look of confusion that many saw clearly. "What does it take to get you to believe me?! I know that I hid what I am…who I am…but I did it for good reason. All my life, I was taught that ghosts were evil, that they were dangerous beings that should be destroyed on first sight, if not captured to become slaves to experiments. I didn't want to be put through that pain. I didn't want to die – not fully, at least – for protecting the people I care about…and especially not for defending those that I love." A meaningful glance was sent towards his parents, and their features softened slightly. "I did what I thought was right at the time, and I know now that hiding this wasn't in my best interests, but I've never stopped fighting until I made sure this city was safe."

Lancer stepped back onto the stage. "Daniel, why don't you read your essay?"

Danny nodded softly, lowering himself to the stage, taking his paper from his English teacher and vice principal softly. He took the mike from Sam, who'd been holding it since she'd revealed his true name. "Last week, Mr. Lancer assigned us a homework project – we were to find a song that describes us. The one that I had found was "One of Us" from the Lion King Two soundtrack."

Danny proceeded to read the paper to the crowd, taking breaks where the lyrics were interposed, until he finished reading. Looking up, he addressed the crowd. "Now that you know what I fight for, who I am, why I do the things that I do, I leave the decision up to you. Will you accept me? Or, will you turn me away, shunning the ghost that is now a part of me?"


End file.
